2009: A Year in Review
2009: A Year in Review
Members and Friends of LRA,
Like fine wine, LRA keeps getting better with time. Okay, we know that is a bit cheesy, but nonetheless, it is accurate. 2009 has been a great year for LRA and we want to take a moment to thank everyone who came out to the club, participated in our various events and demos, and those who volunteered to help push the mission of LRA forward.
One of the primary highlights of 2009 was LRA’s nomination as Small Club of the Year for the Pantheon of Leather Awards. We were excited and honored and proud to be recognized by the national community for our work, and we look forward to the day when we can bring that award home to Chicago.
LRA has continued to provide and promote its educational events and programs. This year we were honored to have several top shelf presenters who provided excellent demos and workshops for us this year. We would like to thank Mistress Joanne, Gary from Skyscraper Heels, Phantom, Wilson & Lara, Jim & Jerith, Mistress Julie, Miss Simone, along with our Taste of Kink presenters, Viking, Eroticrope, Randy K., Larry G., Lady Isis, Min, and Riley. Thanks to all of you for making this year truly special.
We were also able to introduce new programs as we continued others. Our monthly Bootblack Night has remained a popular and special event, with our 3 bootblacks-in-residence. pony and Riley (Great Lakes Bootblack 2007) were joined this year by Bootdog, International Mr. Bootblack 2008 to round out our title holding bootblack group. And we would be remiss if we did not recognize our own “bootblack in training” rachel, who has stepped up and performed wonderfully when asked, when needed, or just when someone else was needed to pick on!
We also started our “What is Leather” series, hosted by our own Mistress Joanne, to educate the community about the history and traditions of the Leather lifestyle. She was assisted by Sir Bear Abbott (Great Lakes Leather Sir 2009) and our own Riley. This year also saw the creation of our FemDom night, hosted by Lady Isis, which is a special night in praise of the female dominant.
This year saw us partner with “Recovery in the Lifestyle” where we donate use of the LRA space to RitL for 12 Step Support meetings on the first Thursday of the month. This program is for those in the Leather/BDSM community who are in recovery or looking to get into recovery. Hosted by LRA member slave evangeline, we at LRA are very pleased to offer this service to the Chicago community.
We held two Dungeon Monitor training programs this year, the first led by the legendary Lord Sedoh, where we educated members of the community on the ins and outs of dungeon safety and what it means to be a DM.
We also want to thank all of our DM’s who have served over the year: Peter Raven, John C., Kelly, Drea, Riley. We also want to thank Sabah, who has come on as our Head DM.
And last, but certainly not least, we began a very special program which we are all proud of, “The Roundtables.” If you haven’t heard about it, it is a joint educational program sponsored with Galleria Domain II. This monthly program which has been for the support and education of those from three different orientations have been valuable, fun, interesting, if not a little loud at times!
We want to thank the facilitators for the Roundtable for this year, Mistress Carol and Min for the Dominants/Masters/Tops, Rica and slave Kelly for the slaves/submissives/bottoms, and Adaya and Andrea for the switches. This program has exceeded our expectations and we are thankful to all who participated, and especially grateful to have this program with GD, enforcing both of our clubs mutual commitment to education and support for the greater Chicago community. We thank Mistress Carol and Colt and the members of GD for their willingness to work for the betterment of the Chicago community.
We had other highs for the year as well as two of our members were named International Leather title holders.
One of LRA’s resident bootblacks pony, was named International Ms Bootblack 2009 at the International Ms Leather conference in March.
And longtime LRA member and supporter Miss Simone was named International Ms Olympus 2009 at the International Olympus Leather conference in August of this year.
We are very happy and proud to call each of them LRA members and look forward to their continued service to the Chicago and National communities.
And it hasn’t just been service, education and Leather titles! We had some kick ass parties this year. Our annual IML party was a HUGE success, drawing one of our largest crowds ever. Our annual Halloween and Holiday parties were equally successful, where at the later, we had not one, but two Santa’s show up and do their “ho ho ho’s” (take that however you want!). And we ended the year with a joint New Years Eve party at Galleria Domain, which was a blast. You had to be there to understand!
In addition to our fellowship with GD 2, we also enjoyed support from other local and national organizations, such as the Chicago Leather Club, the Leather Archives and Museum, MasT (Masters and slaves Together), Touche, Windy City Boys Troop, Onyx, IMAS (Indiana Masters and Slaves/Subs/Switches), Grand Rapids Rivermen, International Ms Leather and International Mr Leather. We were honored to have their support over the year and look forward to working with them in the future and having their presence around the club.
For our Board of Directors elections over the summer, we elected Min as president, Angie as Treasurer, Riley as Director 2 and re-elected Jules as Secretary and Larry G. as Director 1. Peter Raven joined us on the Board of Directors as a director this year as well.
In supporting the nomination of the board of directors, the membership of LRA voted to name our immediate past president, Lady Isis, President Emeritus for all of her hard work and dedication to LRA over the years.
In 2009 we welcomed 49 new members to LRA, doubling our numbers from 2008. Additionally, the membership voted to lower our age for membership to 19 instead of the previous 21.
We created the Hans Blanken Founders Award, and presented it to Tony P., Bob N. and Lionel in recognition for their tireless support and service to LRA during our IML celebration weekend. Our first recipients of this award were given out during our annual IML BBQ this past May.
We also want to take this time to thank Ben, LRA member and our benevolent landlord for his continued support and infinite patience for the club. We literally wouldn’t be where we are and able to accomplish the things we do without his assistance.
Finally, but most importantly, we want to thank the members of LRA. We have some of the best members around and above and beyond anything else we may do, it is our members that makes LRA special. So we want to thank the members of LRA for helping to make LRA a welcoming experience for the entire community.
As you can see, 2009 was a great year, and we are looking to 2010 to be even better. We have many great and wonderful things in store, and hopefully, a couple of surprises!
See you in 2010!
The LRA Board of Directors
